1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor and, more particularly, to the structure of a terminal electrode made up of thin layers and method of manufacture thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a multilayer ceramic capacitor in general consists of a hexahedral ceramic main body 91, a plurality of internal electrodes 92 which divide the ceramic main body 91 into a plurality of alternating ceramic layers, and terminal electrodes 93 which are formed on a pair of facing sides of the ceramic main body 91 and make an electrical contact with internal electrodes 92.
In such a capacitor, a prior art Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. SHO 60-236207 (236207/1895) discloses a terminal electrode 93 formed as a three-layer structure. A first external electrode layer 94 is formed by coating conductive paste on above facing two sides of the ceramic main body 91. A second external electrode layer 95 is formed by subjecting nickel, copper, or other metals having solderability to sputtering, vacuum evaporation or plasma spray coating on the surface of the first external electrode layer 94. A third external electrode layer 96 is formed by subjecting tin, silver, or other metals having solder wettability to sputtering, vacuum evaporation or plasma spray coating on a surface of the second external electrode layer 95.
However, coating the conductive paste allows the resulting first external electrode layer 94 to have a considerable thickness and to be variable in size. This leads to the fact that the capacitor is made to enlarge in size L and precision thereof is declined. Further, due to additional electrode layers 94 that are formed on four sides besides above-mentioned two sides, the height H and the width, W are also increased and precisions thereof decline as well. Accordingly, a capacitor disclosed in the above prior art includes thick terminal electrodes 93 due to first external electrode layer 94 formed thick, and the size of a product is liable to vary owing to a poor precision.